Hungarians paid tribute to Gulag victims over the weekend, marking the memorial day to Hungarian political prisoners deported to the Soviet Union.
Preserving the memory of the tragedy of the Gulag is a common duty, the deputy state secretary in charge of Hungarian communities abroad said at a Budapest conference on Friday, paying tribute to people deported to the Gulag.

Some 800,000 Hungarians and Germans were deported as prisoners of war and internees to the Gulag, and many never returned, Péter Szilágyi said at the event which focused on those deported from areas annexed from Hungary including Transcarpathia, Transylvania, eastern Slovakia and Vojvodina.

At a commemoration held at the monument to Gulag victims in Budapest, justice ministry state secretary Pál Völner said it was a responsibility for everyone to share the stories of survivors. “The young generation should be aware of what happened to some 600,000-800,000 Hungarians and their families,” he said.

In 2012, Hungary’s parliament declared November 25 a memorial day to Hungarian political prisoners and forced labourers deported to the Soviet Union. On the same day in 1953, some 1,500 people convicted for political reasons returned from the Soviet Union.